Where: Pot Smoker BBQ, 340 Edgefield Road, North Augusta, SC 29841 – map www.thepotsmokerbbq.com This the monthly dinner meeting of the premier Miata Club in the CSRA. Come out and have some eats with fellow[...]

Location: The Outing Club in Aiken, SC. The Outing Club is located, appropriately enough, on Outing Club Rd which is off the 118 By-pass about 2 miles from USC Aiken. The entrance gate (33.595227, -81.762587)[...]

The October 4th dinner meeting is listed as being arranged by Kurt & Karen Breitinger, but no info has been provided yet.

October 20 is the Boshears Airshow at Daniel Field and a breakfast before or lunch after was mentioned for the event, but we need a volunteer to arrange something. The Garners would love to do something, but they will be working ther butts off running the airshow.

The November 3rd Leaf Peeping was also mentioned.

The December Christmas party was brought up and due to a lack of commitment for the trip to Callaway Gardens, a need to change plans and to try to hold something without a trip out of town has surfaced. More discussion on this is needed.

The meeting was adjourned and we paid our bills. Los Jarochos was a small diner that served home cooking of Mexican food and it was different from most local places as hamburger was not used for most meals. It was good food. I bet that it serves mostly a Mexican clientele, but the night we were there, our group and another gringo couple were the night’s dinner rush.

For the caravan up on Friday, Ron & Chris, along with Rudy meet the Bogardi at the GA Welcome Center while the Breitingers caught up with the group at Hardee’s in McCormick, SC. The 7 of us stopped for lunch in Highlands. We missed any rain on the drive up, although the clouds looked like we might get a downpour, it never materialized. When we got to the Microtel at around 3:00 PM everyone wanted a driving break after the trip up. The break didn’t last long, as the siren’s call of 318 turns just up the road, had us back in our cars in about an hour. About a mile into the north run, we passed a silver Miata going the other way, “Hey that looks like Anita…“ It was, she and her sister were on their return run. With no real place to turn around we beeped and waved and continued on. We managed to get one complete spirited run through the gap out of both passes. No long after seeing Anita, we came up behind a small car that didn’t take the hint to pull over until about 5 miles later. On the way back south we had to chill until about halfway through. We knew there were two Sheriff’s cars in the gap, because they both passed by us as we took a break in the big gravel lot at the Tennessee end. One stopped and chatted with us a bit. He asked if we were enjoying ourselves, we said yes with smiles on our faces. He then reminded us to be careful and we were, until we passed car #2. 🙂 All of us went to dinner together, except for Stephanie & Justin who were not too interested in hanging with us “old” folks. We ate at the new Papa’s Pizza Place just outside of Robbinsville. If you ever think of eating there, spare yourself, go get a Digiorno from Ingles and heat it up on the exhaust manifold.

For Saturday, the Battles had printed out a big looping drive that included the Gap and the Cherohala Skyway that we wanted to follow, but we wanted to do it in the opposite direction so as to time our arrival in Townsend for lunch. The Battles wanted a later start and said they would do it in the charted direction so we would pass on the road somewhere. It was spritzing lightly as we started out for our drive in the morning, so only Rudy had his top down. When we stopped at the Crossroads of Time for a couple of folks to gas up, everyone else put their tops down for the run through the Gap. With the roads mostly wet , we kept our speed down through the gap. Which in a way was a good thing, as we got to study the turns instead of just react to them. About 3/4 way through, a bunch Honda S2000s started passing by in the opposite direction. There was a group of 50 or so from all over the country in town to do what we were doing, drive the gap. There were also a couple of motorcycle groups and a couple of Midwest Miata groups gathering at the Dragon for some fun. Even with all that, the roads were pretty uncrowded. We ate lunch at Cardin’s Landing just before you get on the Skyway in Townsend. Lunch was good, but pricey. I guess someone has to pay for the almost overly attentive service and linen tablecloths. While we were inside eating, the Battles passed right on by the restaurant, ruining our chance at some Miata wave jousting. For supper we headed down to the Nantahala Outdoor Center’s Relia’s Garden restaurant. The rain we had been dodging most of the day, finally caught up with us for the 20 mile drive down US129 and across US76, nobody had the tops down. As we slowly crept up the unpaved drive to the restaurant, at about the half-way point we passed a sign that said closed for the season! Funny, the brochure said mid March to mid October… We crept slowly back down the unpaved drive back to the lower parking area so we could dine at the River’s End. Of course, as luck would have it, it really started to pour down rain as we tried to find a place to park and the spots were few and far between. We then endured an hour or so wait to get a table for eight because this place was, literally, the only game in town. The food was OK, but after all that, hardly worth the trouble.

Instead of trying to compromise between the early risers and late sleepers on Sunday, it was every man, woman and Miata for themselves for the trip home. Mark your calendars for September 12, 13 & 14 in 2003 because we will do it again. This time maybe it will be a little drier.

As they did last year, the insects mostly stayed away from our Miatas.* The Closest to the Spot was a very small black smudge of undetermined bug (DNA results pending), the Cleanest Car was a tough call as nearly everyone qualified and because of that the Dirtiest Car Award was presented to the car that was the dirtiest at the start of the drive.

*I need to check with an entomologist at a local university and see if there is an optimal time of year and time of day for insect activity to insure we get a large insect turn out for next year’s event.